Hong Kong - One of the Most Expensive Cities in the World - or is it?

One of Several Rolls Royce limos wandering Macau's casinos. I waited the extra minute with hopes of landing a sugar momma - hey I'm still single and I don't mind being a kept man.



Down to the Hong Kong stuff:

You often read lists of the most expensive cities - Tokyo, New York, Vancouver, Hong Kong, London etc.

Hong Kong is expensive largely because of the housing costs. The government subsidizes my housing giving me about $1700 per month (after tax) while my rent is $1500. You could of course pay such rents in Vancouver but you probably get a larger apartment than my 618 square feet. I do have nice views and my gym/clubhouse is included. You can get nice decent apartments here for $1000 a month (450 square feet) which is bigger than it sounds but is still small compared to the Canada. Locals living here are also subsidized if they don't earn much - their rents can be as low as $300 a month. But I can't imagine a family of 4 living in these places - but they do.

Setting that aside I decided to run down the costs for average items - there is no sales tax here. Salaries are taxed at a flat 15% which rises to 17% if you make a ridiculous sum of money. There is no tax on low income earners. The pension plan is interesting. I pay 5% of my salary and the government kicks in 5%. When a person retires they give you a lump sum payment of the total amount. Now the 10% that is going into the pension scheme you get to choose to distribute into various high interest high risk or lower interest lower risk schemes. However that big lump sum payment you get when you retire you have to live on for the rest of your life. So save wisely or don't live to 104.

Some prices

Vegetables
About 1/2 to 1/4 what they are in Canada
6 middle sized banana would be about .80 to $1.20
Celery (typical bundle) 0.75
Kiwi (.25 each)
Tomatoes (.25 each for bigger ones)
Romaine Lettuce $1.50 for 2-3

Fast food/junk food/coffee
Big Mac set (med fries/Med drink) $2.50
Pizza Hut supreme ($20 for a Medium - $30 for 2) The cheese I suspect drives the price up
Can of Coke ( .60 -.75 in 7/11)
Starbucks (Americano $3.50 Grande)
Frappuccino ($4.00 - $4.50 Grande)
Starbucks coffee 1lb $22 - $24
Pringles potato chips ($1.50 for the big size)
Godiva chocolates (INSANE - $25 for about 8 pieces) - It's not even that great. Makes me want to buy a Purdy's franchise and open it here - better chocolate by a mile and way cheaper. Even importing it shouldn't drive the price up this much.

Meat is about the same
Salmon (filet $6.00 ) no deal here
Chicken (depends where it's from - can be as low as $2 for 6 boneless skinless pieces)
Bacon $5-$6 for half what you would get in Canada - but the quality is higher - less fat more meat so...
Beef is about the same but not quite as good as Canada - there is Australian beef but it costs more. But it's in the ballpark.

Bread is the same - varies from .80 for white bread (but half a Canadian loaf) to $2 for Multi-grain - but they don't sell the really nice breads here (or I have not found it yet).

Bagels - 4 blueberry $3 (but unlike in Canada they use REAL blueberries in the bagels not the blue sugar candy pretending to be blueberries like Save-On sells).

Cereal
Kellogg's Corn flakes - $2 for a medium sized box (here it is a large box as they don't sell those massive family sizes)
Weetabix $3
Muselix (import from England) $6-7 for 1kg (non brand name $5)
Quaker oatmeal box of 12 ($4)
Eggs ($2.50 to $5 for 12 - depends a bit on organic/brown and size - similar to Canada)

Dairy (eesh)
Cheese (double what it is in Canada)
Milk ($3.50 1 litre) for fresh Milk - and it doesn't taste as good
Cream $4 for SoyMilk cream for coffee - 500ml
Half and half is impossible to find - I get a coffee and mcDonalds and ask for 3-4 half and halfs so I take them home for my coffee - The soy stuff just doesn't quite taste as good.
Yogurt is the same as Canada but for smaller portions.
Ice-cream - $4.50 for 2 litres of Neapolitan ice cream
Hagen-Daaz $8 for 500ml

Classico pasta sauce $3
V8 1.8 Litre $3.80

Typical bottle of wine $6-8 (Australia Yellow Tail)

If you eat vegetables, fruits, pork, chicken, and fish (that isn't salmon) you will save. And many of the Chinese food items and noodles are inexpensive. If you eat dairy or western foods you pay more. Everything is imported here but the prices are not outlandish. Similar to Vancouver.

Other items

Cell Phone - my phone - albeit a cheap Nokia with no camera was $25. $12 pay as you go lasts me 3 months - And that receiving several phone calls from Canada for 45 minutes to an hour numerous texts and phone calls here anytime. And I still have $6 left. In other words dirt cheap.

Cable TV/High Speed Internet/HBO - 6 channels 2 in HD/National Geographic/History/Scyfy network - combined is $30 a month.

Water bill - 3 months - $1.20 (I mean why even bother sending me the bill - the paper work has to cost more)

Electricity is about $30 a month but I should imagine this goes way up in the summer so we'll see)

Gas bill is about $25 for 2 months. Gas is used to heat the water for a hot shower and for cooking.

Mailing a letter to Canada/US is less than .50. It would be about .25 in Hong Kong

Taxis about 1/10 the price of Canada.

Buses are about .50 cents anytime.
MTR train $1.50 each way pretty much anywhere.

There is a quarterly government tax/bill on the apartment that the landlord has to pay - just under $100. So perhaps $350 a year.

To buy this apartment would run close to $370,000 Canadian ($2.9 million HKD - asking price) - foreigners have to come up with virtually the entire amount in cash I believe so yikes.

TVs and appliances are about the same price - Laptops are about the same price - There is a computer market that sells for a bit less but buy at your own risk. Cameras seems to be the same price. You do save by not paying tax but that's about all you save.

Some more photos
They need to put these signs up in Wenzhou, China. But I am impressed with how clean Hong Kong is considering the amount of people. They make an effort to clean all the time. There are attendants in all the public washrooms that are standing around cleaning sinks and stalls almost all the time.
Chinese New Year golden money tree from what I can tell. Money may not grow on trees but Gold Coins do.

Many people have asked the question - "What is Love? " Well Hong Kong has the answer

That's right. Time is Love. Maybe it doesn't translate.

Because there aren't enough billboards, posters, commercials and watch stores - just in case you missed the endless onslaught to buy a watch - here is a nice cable car in pink to remind you that you need to buy a watch. I refuse - I bought 5 watches for $12 total - 4 of them have failed. My favorite one is still hanging on - I refuse to succumb to the watch ads. From Swatch to Seiko ro Rolex to Omega to the truly insane Breitling (a watch maker for Bentley car owners) and Patek Philippe to who knows what else - they're everywhere.

I did some digging on the watch insanity. Apparently they're used to bribe people without a traceable cash flow. A businessman will spend $50,000US on a watch. Then when he wants to sway a purchasing agent from some company to buy his product he simply gives the guy his watch. Nice little business. No cash is changing hands. How true this is - I don't know but it makes some sense.